DeepSeek warns of fake social media accounts as AI app’s popularity soars

The Chinese AI start-up has urged the public to be vigilant of accounts posing as its founder or selling cryptocurrencies in its name

Chinese AI Phone App 'DeepSeek

SCMP - DeepSeek is fighting a surge in fake social media accounts and websites pretending to be linked to the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up, as scammers and impersonators take advantage of the frenzy surrounding the firm’s success.

Hangzhou-based DeepSeek on Thursday warned that it had only three authentic social media accounts, which could be found on Chinese platforms WeChat and RedNote, as well as US microblogging service X, formerly Twitter.

The company added that its namesake chatbot app was free to download and that it had not issued cryptocurrencies. Any social media groups set up in the name of DeepSeek to charge fees must be fraudulent, it said.